Telford care home given warning over medicine management
A Telford care home has received a warning from inspectors after they found continued problems with the distribution and storage of medicines.
Morris Care Centre, on Holyhead Road, in Wellington, was the subject of an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in February.
Inspectors found that residents received ‘kind and compassionate care’ at the home and that staff were ‘well trained’.
This resulted in ratings of ‘good’ for the assessed areas of ‘caring and responsive’. However, the inspectors found the home required improvement when assessing whether it was ‘safe, effective and well-led’.
Following the inspection, the CQC said it would continue to monitor the information it receives about the service provided at Morris Care Centre.
Inspectors re-visited in July, when it was found that an action plan had been put in place highlighting what the home needed to improve on.
The ‘targeted inspection’ was carried out following concerns about the safe administration of medicines and staffing levels.
Inspectors found that the home was ‘failing to ensure the proper and safe management of medicines’.
They found ‘discrepancies’ between medicines expected to be in stock and what were present.
It was also found that residents had not consistently received the medicines prescribed to them.
A full report of their inspection, over two dates in July, has now been published and a warning given to the home’s provider.
“The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about the safe administration of medicines, staffing levels and pressure care treatment,” found the inspectors.
“The provider had failed to ensure the proper and safe management of medicines. This placed people at an increased risk of harm.
“This was a repeated breach. The providers monitoring and governance process had failed to identify and take appropriate action in relation to the administration of medicines at the home
“We issued the provider with a warning notice, requiring them to make the required improvements by an agreed date to avoid further regulatory action.”
Inspectors found an incident where a person’s insulin had not been dated when removed from the fridge.
They also found that staff were not carrying out daily checks on the temperature of the fridge where the medicines were stored and records were ‘completed sporadically’.
At the previous inspection in February inspectors raised concerns about the staffing levels at the home.
“The provider took action and increased staffing levels in response,” added the report.
“At this inspection we received mixed feedback from people about whether there were enough staff to meet their needs.
“We shared the mixed feedback with the provider who showed us the dependency tool that they used to calculate the staffing levels needed to meet people’s needs.
“Systems were in place to protect people from harm. People told us they felt safe with the staff who supported them.
“People told us all the staff were well trained and had the skills and knowledge to meet all their needs.”
A spokesperson for Morris Care Centre said: “We take all feedback from the regulator very seriously, and always work hard to provide the best possible care to our residents. This inspection report is based on a visit from the Care Quality Commission’s inspection team in July.
"In the five months since their visit, we have made a number of positive changes at the home and are confident we have met each area identified as needing improvement.
"Under the direction of our new home manager, and working closely with our local authority partners, we have updated our medicine management processes and provided our teams with enhanced training to ensure these changes are embedded.
"We are pleased to have received positive feedback from our local authority partners and our home community. We look forward to welcoming the Care Quality Commission into our home again in the future.”
